Reference
Prompt Engineering Glossary
Every term you need, with working example prompts and practical notes on when each technique earns its keep.
6 terms starting with "S"
Self-Consistency
Generating N independent answers to the same prompt (with temperature > 0) and picking the majority answer -- trading compute for reliability.
AppliedSemantic Search
Search that matches on meaning (via embeddings) rather than exact keywords -- finding relevant documents even when they share no surface words with the query.
TechniquesStep-Back Prompting
Before answering a specific question, asking the model to derive the general principle or high-level abstraction that the question falls under -- then using that principle to answer.
TechniquesStructured Output
Constraining a model to produce JSON, XML, or other machine-parseable output conforming to a schema -- so downstream code can consume it reliably.
AgenticSupervisor-Worker Pattern
An agentic architecture where one high-capability model (supervisor) plans and decomposes, delegating narrow sub-tasks to smaller/cheaper models (workers) that execute.
TechniquesSystem Prompt
The high-priority, typically hidden instruction that sets a model's persona, rules, and constraints for an entire conversation.